


Empty People

by madwriter223



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, S03E16, implied slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 15:25:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1433410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madwriter223/pseuds/madwriter223
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>//Rumplestiltskin curled up on his little stool and wrapped his arms around himself.  He had been wrong about her.// My attempt at Zelena's character study after the episode It's Not Easy Being Green.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empty People

Rumplestiltskin had been wrong about her.

He had heard of people like this. During all those years he had stepped and skipped upon the earth he had heard rumours. A wendigo ate their soul. A ghoul ripped out their heart. A curse destroyed their mind. A demon had possessed them. A favourite one after his reputation grew was that they bartered away their humanity for something or other.

In most cases, it was true. Dark creatures indeed preyed upon the living relatively often. And there were whole herds of people willing to sell away everything they were for a little wealth, power or revenge. The latter made up 90% of Rumplestiltskin's clientèle.

But sometimes. Sometimes, so very rarely, a baby was born without a soul. Just an already withered lump of flesh where their hearts should be. Empty.

They weren't that easy to spot. They usually learned to pretend quite early in life. Pretend to smile, learn to laugh, practise happiness. And all the while they had a hole inside them, a void where their emotions should be. And for some reason, that void was incredibly easy to fill with dark emotions. Hate. Greed. Jealousy. Resentment. But when such a person desired something, demanded something, that was when they truly went dark.

Zelena was one of those empty people. He had thought she had been in love with him and she probably even believed herself to love him. But no. The more Rumplestiltskin looked at her, the more he saw it. She was utterly devoid of love. She didn't understand it, she didn't feel it. She probably had this silly notion that if she found someone to love they would always be together. And if not, she'd simply enslave them. Force them never to leave her. She would smother them with her facsimile of emotions and punish them viciously for any perceived slight. They would come to hate her, and she would destroy them. But never release. It wasn't in her to let anything go. Everything she took, everything she stole, everything she ripped away from people who 'didn't deserve it', Zelena would guard jealously like a vengeful spirit.

Rumplestiltskin had been wrong about her. She could never enact his curse. There was nothing in her that could even resemble love. Only possessiveness and her void filled with rage. She didn't want love nor family, she wanted pets that would never leave her, never disappoint her cold expectations. She didn't want her own happiness, she wanted someone's happiness. She continuously compared her life to the lives of others, and at each difference she grew more jealous, more resentful. She wanted all the best in life, but she wanted to take it from others. She wanted to take everything that she knew others would enjoy, so that she could pretend she enjoyed them too. And when that grew boring, she would find another thing to be jealous about.

Turning back time was impossible. Her wanting to be the one to change her infant fate negated the success of it. How could anything change if she needed to exist to change it in the first place? But she wouldn't listen to any thoughts that didn't match her own. She wouldn't listen to anything that could prove her to be wrong, because in her mind she was infallible. It was everyone around her that caused her misery or hurt her. Nevermind most of it was in her head, spurned on by her anger and hate.

Rumplestiltskin looked at her and blinked, watching her self-assured smug expression grow as she talked about Regina and revenge and the spell. This was one of those rare people who are born only to become monsters. There was no good in her. Only a pretence that she could use to manipulate the world. Only a pretence she lied to herself with.

Rumplestiltskin curled up on his little stool and wrapped his arms around himself.

He had been wrong about her.


End file.
